Local

WATERBURY — Federal environmental authorities have a $6.2 million plan to clean up the tainted soil and water left behind at the former Scovill Industrial Landfill on Store Avenue.

The U.S. Department of Environmental Protection has concluded the chemicals found in the dirt and water there pose an unacceptable cancer risk to tenants of 119 and 136 Store Ave. and 27 Newman Ave.

To reduce the existing risk, as well as the risk to those who live, work or shop along the boundary of the 25-acre landfill, EPA is proposing a mix of land use restrictions, soil removal and underground vents.

The agency will discuss the plan at a public information meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Waterbury ARC at 1929 East Main St. At 8 p.m., EPA will open the meeting up to public comments on the proposal.

Environmental testing has revealed contamination throughout the old landfill where Scovill Manufacturing Co. dumped ash, cinders, demolition debris and other wastes from 1919 through the mid-1970s.

The manufacturer used aluminum, chromium, copper, silver, tin, and zinc to make metal items ranging from brass buttons and belt buckles, to munitions and brass artillery casings.

When the landfill closed, investors developed the southern portion of the landfill into what's now an 18-acre mix of rental apartments, including elderly housing, small shops, a day care center and a strip mall.

The contamination was not discovered until 1989, when a developer, Joseph Calabrese, tried to build elderly housing on the remaining parcel on the northern side of the former landfill.

Local citizen complaints about possible wetland violations lured state inspectors out to the construction site, where they found piles of electrical capacitors, metal wastes and rusted-out drums of sludge.

The city ordered Calabrese to stop construction work in March 1989.

Nine years later, EPA removed the drums and 2,300 tons of tainted soils, capped the fenced-off area with a foot of soil and began sampling the rest of the property, which in 2000 it declared a Superfund site.

The government identified Scovill's corporate successor, Saltire Inc., as responsible for the cleanup, but Saltire-funded work stopped in 2004 after the firm filed for bankruptcy, forcing EPA to take over.

Soil tests revealed the presence of chemicals the EPA identifies as major contributors to cancer, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), arsenic, vanadium, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

At most of the small commercial areas, EPA is recommending land-use controls, such as no-dig orders and deed restrictions that prohibit residential development without regulatory approval, and five-year reviews.

In the vacant area where elderly housing had been planned, which is known as the Calabrese parcel, EPA wants to do additional soil testing, then excavate and cover the area.

This would cost about $1.4 million, according to the EPA plan.

At East Gate Shopping Plaza, EPA plans to spend $1 million to dig up and replace 1,900 cubic yards of tainted soils, repave the area, and install a deed restriction governing long-term pavement care.

In the residential areas, EPA is recommending removing about four feet of soil and replacing it with clean fill, as well as land-use restrictions and follow-ups every five years. This will cost about $400,000.

Several volatile organic compounds, like tetrachloroethylene (PCEs) and vinyl chloride, were found in samples from a monitoring well located near 119 East Store Ave., an occupied housing complex.

Although the complex uses the public water supply, EPA found there is a potential for these chemicals to move from groundwater to soil vapor and migrate into the air inside the above-ground apartments.

The EPA is deciding between a mix of options to reduce the human exposure to these harmful vapors, ranging from banning people from the first-floor apartments to installation of a vapor mitigation system.

A vapor mitigation system creates a pressure differential across the residential building slab to push dangerous, underground soil gases into a ventilation system that pumps the gases out to the outdoor air.

" Yes, yes.... We need more manufacturing in this city..... Said no smart taxpayer ever.....Low paying jobs, giving workers and neighbors cancer. And in the end, the owners who got rich walk away from the toxic dump they made, leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill. When will this city learn. "

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